Speaking at a recent press event, Murphy stated that the new season was neither “pro-Hillary” or “anti-Donald Trump”, arguing that instead “it was really about trying to understand: Why are people voting for X or Y candidate? What are they feeling? Why are they feeling belittled or disenfranchised or upset with the patriarchal system?”

Murphy added: “Our feeling is that everybody lost their shit after the election — Republican, Democrat — and everybody’s still losing their shit, and nobody’s really figured out from either side where to put those feelings. There is no real discussion. Everybody’s still at each other’s throats, you’re either on one side or you’re on the other.”

“The season really is not about Trump, it’s not about Clinton,” he continued. “It’s about somebody who has the wherewithal to put their finger up in the wind and see that that’s what’s happening and is using that to rise up and form power, and using people’s vulnerabilities about how they’re afraid and don’t know where to turn, and they feel like the world is on fire.”

“The characters have very strong views about Trump and Hillary Clinton, but it really is not about them,” Murphy went on to say. “It really is about the cult of personality that can rise in a divisive society. That’s what this show is about. And I hope that people can figure that out.”

“We wanted to do Charles Manson for a long time, and I couldn’t figure out how to do it,” Murphy explained. “Evan Peters is playing Kai, this cult leader in this small town who we follow as he rises. And the thing that we’re doing is we’re really examining all different sorts of cults. And there are many, many famous ones.”

Revealing that Peters will portray several famous historic figures, including Charles Manson and Andy Warhol, Murphy says: “They’re all such idiots,. But for some reason in the culture at that time there was something going on that people were so disenfranchised that they were, like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to follow you, Charles Manson, and I’m going to do whatever you say.’”